In the early nineties
the trusty Nintendo Entertainment System, already
a gaming legend, finally ran out of steam. Nintendo
had kept it alive and in the number one spot even
in the face of Sega's 16-bit Genesis gaming system
for quite a few years. Time had finally taken
its toll and America said good-bye to NES as it
passed its 8-bit torch to its 16-bit baby brother,
Super Nintendo, which boasted Mode 7 scrolling
capabilities and a whole slew of bells and whistles
that sent the Sega Genesis running for cover.
LucasArts embraced the system immediately, and
teamed up with JVC to develop one of the earliest
games for the new console, the best-selling Super
Star Wars, which showed off all of the
Super Nintendo's then amazing capabilities.

Screen to next
level.

Super Star
Wars was so successful, that LucasArts
and JVC made two sequels, Super
Empire Strikes Back and Super
Return of the Jedi. All of these games
were very well done platform action games with
beautiful graphics, amazing play control, and
gaming atmospheres that captured the essence of
the Star Wars
films more so than any other movie game to date.
All of them also had simulator levels that utilized
the Mode 7 functions of the SNES to their full
advantage so players could fly X-Wings and snowspeeders
with amazing realism. The one criticism of these
games was the fact that each one was the same
as the last with only "new outfits and new
levels". Regardless of this criticism, all
of the games did extremely well.

In 1994, just after the release
of Super Return of the
Jedi, LucasArts took this best-selling
game formula for one final spin and released Indiana
Jones' Greatest Adventures in collaboration
with Factor 5. This game is essentially Super
Star Wars made over to look like Indiana
Jones. The game structure is exactly the same.
The player controls Indy through a whole series
of platform based levels that highlight the major
action scenes from the film trilogy beginning
with Raiders and
ending with Last Crusade.
In between some of these platform levels are some
"vehicle" levels that use the Mode 7
ability of the SNES, such as the rafting level
in the Temple of Doom
section of the game and the biplane level from
the Last Crusade
section.

Screenshots
of 3 Raiders
of the Lost Ark
levels.

Story and Gameplay

This is not to imply that the game
is poor. The game is far from poor. It boasts
fun levels, impressive graphics, very nice cinema
scenes that use high quality scans of production
stills from the films, authentic sound effects
from the trilogy, and actual voice clips from
the characters. For example, when Indy bites the
dust, a large photo of Henry Jones Sr. appears
and Sean Connery's voice is heard saying, "I've
lost him". Indy runs and jumps and takes
advantage of his whip and revolver while swinging
over pits, fighting off baddies, dodging traps,
and driving vehicles from the entire trilogy in
settings that parallel the films excellently.
When Indy changes levels, we get to see the familiar
red line go across the map and when the films
change, the game emulates the opening shots from
the films with the credits (e.g. the mountain
in Raiders). Indy
himself is very well rendered and LucasArts once
again provides great atmosphere with John William's
original scores. This is truly one of the best
Indiana Jones games ever made.

My problems with this game are not
with the game itself, but with the intentions
behind it. As I said before, it is a Super
Star Wars makeover. Meaning, that for those
players who had already played the entire Super
Star Wars Trilogy, it had become a pretty
tired format. I can assure you, Indiana
Jones' Greatest Adventures found itself
at a disadvantage because it offered nothing new
to LucasArts fans waiting for an original Indy
game to hit the SNES only to find Super
Star Wars IV. On top of that, the game
seems like an afterthought on LucasArts' part,
almost a token gesture to Indy himself. I can
almost hear the developers saying, "Hey guys,
we gave Star Wars
its games, so we need to give Indy a game too.

Screenshots
of 3 Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom
levels.

Conclusion

What resulted is something I consider
a slap in the face of Indy fans to a degree. The
first and obvious observation is, "Star
Wars got a game for each movie. Why didn't
Indy get his three too?" I know I sound like
a fifth grader but what was the deal? They fabricated
levels in the Star Wars
games to provide added content but they crammed
all three Indy films into one game. They should
have named it Indiana
Jones' Greatest Highlights. I almost feel
like the people at LucasArts did not have enough
confidence that Indy could sell three games, or
maybe they realized that they had milked the game
format for all it was worth.

The game format was the second slap.
It was obvious that they used the same engine
from the Star Wars
games, so no effort really was involved on their
part. "OK, take Han Solo and give him a hat.
Good. Now, rearrange this level, turn the metal
floor into a stone one, and add a big boulder
at the end. Oh, and take that Imperial officer
and put an Nazi armband on his sleeve." My
point is the Indiana Jones game was not given
much thought. They seemed to just cookie cut the
game out for a quick buck or two. Again, do not
misunderstand me. It is a very nice cookie cut,
but a cookie cut nonetheless. Admittedly, were
it not for the Super
Star Wars Trilogy preceding this game,
I would have better feelings for it. I do not
dislike the game, I dislike the intentions of
the developers behind it and honestly, I feel
bad that Indy got stuck with the "compilation"
game.

Screenshots
of 3 Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
levels.

If you have not played the SNES
Star Wars games, I envy you because it will make
Indiana Jones' Greatest
Adventures as great as it is truly. For
all the rest of us out there who played the Super
Star Wars Trilogy first, let's keep in
mind that Greatest Adventures is very well done.
Remember, even though it is only a new facing
for an older game, thank the stars that it is
a very cool Indiana Jones facing and not a Howard
the Duck one. If you have not played it,
find a cartridge or a ROM set and get playing.
All Indy fans will enjoy this game. (MF)

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